Featured What is this little silver bowl???

You mean the Tongs ?
yes it does !!!

 

Tongs!! (TY Komokwa)

Nippers, smaller, are for candy?

Growing up, lump sugar was a staple....not even sure if they sell it these days.

Edit.......looking back on the picture again, I see that they are listed as TONGS! DUH!

 

Actually, there used to be sugar nippers to cut chunks from a large cone of sugar as recently as the 19th century in USA. In the south, sugar was so valuable it was kept under lock & key in sugar chests which are very collectable today.
http://revealinghistories.org.uk/sm...ritish-sweet-tooth/objects/sugar-nippers.html

 

Nippers, made in two basic forms, were used for cutting or breaking larger pieces broken off of sugar loaves into usable lumps, tongs were used for lifting the lumps or, by the time this bowl was made, ready-made cubes...

~Cheryl

 

You can get an idea of the value people placed on sugar by the cabinets they kept it in, here is a sugar chest from Kentucky, about 1825 in cherry.

 

Beautiful cabinet.....

I never knew that sugar came in such large pieces.

The sugar tongs I'm familiar with have "claw" grappers.......rather than the spoon ends.

I have a Victorian candy container with porcelain doll atop that has small nippers....shell shape ends.

I guess the styles vary.

 

What a beautiful sugar cabinet!!!!!

 

Yeah, is, and VERY collectable, outstanding examples sell for big bucks.

 

how big would that sugar chest be? Stunning piece

 

bigger than the sugar !!!

 

Not real big, smaller than a blanket chest, the one above is 25 1/2" H x 23 1/4" W x 12 1/2" D The style is Sheraton, link is here, sold for $5800.
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/33224850_ky-sugar-chest-miniature-sideboard-form
Here is a Hepplewhite example, dia. are 39-1/2 x 33-1/2 x 22-1/2 in. sold for 10,500
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/7577900_162-fine-kentucky-federal-sugar-chest

 

Even a plain jane sugar chest will run you $1000 or so, most everyone had one so there are still plenty around. They are normally fairly small which is a plus in today's world, still have many functions & handy around the house so better examples like above can get pricey in a hurry!

 

Thank-you James! I really like the Sheraton style piece - why would the other example have sold for so much more money?

 

Well, primarily because there were 2 or more bidders who really wanted it! Yes, i like the Sheraton one as well, the figure on that cherry is very nice. Whenever these come up at auction and it is a better example, expect there to be A LOT of interest and spirited bidding.

 

I regret to say that one that was passed down in my family was converted into a silver chest. It was auctioned off in 1965/66, but I still remember the agents decrying the conversion............it was on the general lines of the Sheraton piece shown above, but I do not remember the details.

 

Going back to the original post - the silver bowl - it could also be a shaving bowl. My sister has a bowl that looks similar size, bit quite plain except for monogram, that was my Great Grandfather's shaving mug, presented to him at some stage by his son.

 

Sugar lumps are a normal everyday thing in France. They come in standard-sized boxes. You can also buy tins of biscuits (cookies), the tins serve to hold the sugar boxes when empty.

As the little bowl is English, the matching jug would be called a 'milk jug' or 'cream jug'. No one in the UK says 'creamer'. An American lady walked into my living room a few weeks ago and saw the line of milk jugs hanging on my dresser (large pine cupboards with shelves above) and said "Oh, you collect cream pitchers!". Double-take. (I don't collect milk jugs, I just have too many...)